Kategorie: Uncategorised

Spectacular event to close our four training series in 2015/2016. We have grown a lot since our start in Vienna in 2015. Our hosts this time where the Ministry of Youth as well as the first Viennese esport bar Respawn. We had so much stuff to try out! After a brief introduction to Digital Game-based Learning we settled into our clans to collaborate and strive for mastery. With two play days in Respawn we tried something new. Next to our well seasoned Heroes of the Storm we also had a tournament in Overwatch. FPS seemed way more accessible for newbies. Next to the matches we had awesome relaxation areas, were the clans met in between matches, collected advice and discussed strategy.
We ended the play days with intense reflection periods alongside common play roles. It was interesting to hear why people picked their play styles and how they would like to improve the teamplay. Common notions were: keep the chat clear, clearly assign roles and adapt asap! We got much more insights to be published later.
Sadly our free afternoon was the only rainy day but our gamers still had a great time exploring the city and checking out sights, food and shops. For those who would melt in the rain we also introduced some of the hottest gamer locations in Vienna. We want to ZAMSpielen and watched a public let’s play of No Mans Sky and went to VREI, the first VR Lounge (anywhere?)!
The week ended in some very heavy debates. Who would have thought some people are still triggered by Anita Sarkeesian? We still recommend watching her videos and learn about sexist tropes in videogames! The debates hopefully broadened some horizons and wouldn’t crush our group spirit.
After way too much pizza and sandwiches we are happy to have met so many great people throughout the project. It is true, playing 20min videogames together will tell you more about a person than if you talk for a day. We have gained so much insight, explored the rich facettes of gaming culture and experienced such great teamplay moments and group dynamics that we are definitely looking forward to more projects to come!
Some of us went straight on to Gamescom to keep our gaming passion going. Hope to see you all again soon!

The interwebz are changing, can you feel it? More and better diversity can be found in videogames: be it MMOs, indies, wild battle arenas or more quiet introspective discoveries things are improving.

But more than just splash in waters of awesome gaming, what we want is to fully dive into an unapologetic sea of positive and remarkable gaming experiences! We lust for videogames filled with fairplay, competition, diversity and challenge. Community & Adventure, Gaming communities with a heart and soul.

We want our friends and the friends of our friends to play along with us and at the same time we also wanna that awesome feeling of just shutting off in our room and just grind a single player RPG to it’s completion.

GameOverHate is here to discuss and to envision a world just like that. We bring gamers, activists and all around awesome European folk together and we set up to forge new friendships, clans and unforgettable gaming week.

This time, Vienna is the place and the date is August 7th to 13th.

Feel like up to the task and want to spend a week with like minded gamers in the capital of Austria? Apply now and GLHF!

During the last seminar our participants had the challenge to come up with their own approach on how to discuss video games and express what they think about it. We used the Open Space Technology, which allows with few instructions to set up your own workshop and start discussing straight away.

Not all groups wrote down their outputs, here are three presentations, who did:

A booklet for family friendly games, selected by the group and introduced with basic information so when parents are looking for entertainment they know what to look for and what gameas to get:Family Time v01

The next group picked up a big discussion if videogames are art or entertainment. The discussion has a lot of political implications but also dug into aesthetic arguments. You can check out their arguments here:aregamesart

A third group wanted to discuss intercultural stereotypes. Based on popular games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto they identified stereotypical representation and showed up alternatives on how to create more inclusive games:ON THE LOOKOUT FOR STEREOTYPES

Other groups dealt with gender equality, morality in games and fan communities and cosplay.

Berlin! What a week. We hosted our third training right during the International Games Week. So many opportunities! AMAZE Festival, Games Fest, Gaming competitions, theatre and much more. However we also completely overhauled our programme. We added boardgames to the mix and apparently created quite a few Resistance-heads.. Also our play sessions took much more space in the programme. We had wonderful hosts with the Berlin esport bar Meltdown. Our game of choice Heroes of the Storm was challenging but in a good way. During our visit to the German age rating agency USK we got to enter the biggest videogame archive in Germany, if not Europe! If that wasn’t enough we also got to see the videogames museum. Tiny hint on the side, if you ever get to go, bring a friend and try the pain station.. ask Miguel.
It was a wonderful week and the first time we got all partners together. We are hoping to continue the streak with our training in Vienna in Summer!

Gaming culture has never been as diverse as today. Striving indie titles, e-sports and retro culture allow each and every player to find their own way of playing. In such an environment diversity is key and open-mindedness should be a given. With our third event we want to explore diverse gaming communities, game types and discourse. Meet us in Berlin 18th-24th April 2016 for a week of fun and games, nerdy discussions and geekout, in the midst of International Games Week Berlin!

Preliminary programme:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Arrival

Intro to the programme and partners

Intro to Mobas

Visit USK

Intro to FPS

Visit Videogame Museum

Evaluation

Games are good for you

Moba Team Competition

Choose your weapon

Departure

Storytelling „Which games enriched my life“

City Tour

International Games Week

Welcome at the Hostel

Clans!

Moba Debriefing

Debriefing FPS

Call:

We are looking for active gamers, ages 18-30 from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. Food and accommodation for the duration of the programme are covered through the Erasmus+ Youth in Action funding. We also offer travel support, for details check the table below. Participants will need to cover the participation fee of 20€.

After a week well spent the second gameoverhate event in our 2015/2016 line finished on 29th November. What an event it has been! An event full of videogames, discussion, cooking together, city exploration amidst the dark and cold winter nights in Gothenburg. Not to forget Dreamhack! We gathered 24 people to discuss competition and inclusion. With some hardcore competitioners and some newcomers, who took their first steps to MOBAs in the programme, we adressed some core themes of what is needed to have everyone compete in videogames without prejudice. The main tool we saw was Code of Conducts. We took a peak into the new eSport Code of Conduct about to be developed by our Swedish partners from Sverok.

With fabulous cooking skills from the group we had comfort food for the evenings, enjoyed alongside a variety of board games, protecting humanity from dragons, ancient ones and evil corporations. We practiced the traditional scandinavian art of egg dropping and listened to the tales of Felix. Our clans competed in the real world and in the digital playground, concluding everything is awesome if you play as a team.

We spend the last day going to Dreamhack, the biggest LAN Party in the world. It was a massive event, full of gamers, competition and people sleeping in their seats in the middle of the day. Cosplay competitions, live tournaments and eSport stars left impressions left and right to take home and cherish. Meeting esport starlets in the cafeteria is the cherry on top!

Our conclusions from the week:
Teamplay is awesome!
MOBAs can be hard, a friendly intro helps
Group contacts are important, and awesome!
Gothenburg is cold but awesome!
Dreamhack = awesome!
Participants, you guessed it, were awesome too!

Competition is a catalyst for motivation and it engages players over a long periods of time. With the rise of e-sports, more and more games aim for competitiveness and seek ways to pit players against each other. Can we enable fair play and healthy competition while allowing space for those constantly looking for the next headshot or pentakill? We think so, let’s talk about it!

GameOverHate invites you to our upcoming event on competition and inclusion in the beautiful city of Gothenburg from 23rd-29th November 2015. In our programme we will look to the phenomena of angry losers and classless winners alike, as well as the role models we look up to and all different online game types. Together as a group we want to explore possibilities that encourage fair play and competition and increase the diversity of the different competitive scenes.

The cherry on top of this week (sure to be filled with creative battles of the wits), will be a field visit to the crazy-popular Dreamhack Winter. With free floor passes, provided by Dreamhack itself we will join the biggest LAN Party in the world on Saturday (28/11) and see what all that e-sport talk is about!

If you are somewhere between 16 and 30 years old, living in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden or Portugal and want to join our event, and feel up to our challenge, fill up the application form. Selected participants will be notified end of October.

Our first event of 2015 – Gender and Sexuality in Videogames – has just ended and it was an amazing experience! A lot of debating, sharing, having fun and learning about gamer culture and gender and sexuality.

We were 27 participants all with different experiences and backgrounds but all sharing the this imense love towards gaming and cyber culture. A lot was discussed about challenging hate while supporting competition, making our online communities more welcoming and safe. We also shared a lot of games we know and love and realized that together we can make gameoverhate bigger and better.

Click to read more to see some of our pictures. In the next days we will open our call to our next event in November in Sweden (during Dreamhack Winter). Stay tunned and join the discussion on facebook.

GameOverHate is an initiative for gamers+ interested in discussing the challenges associated with contemporary online gaming in regards to diversity, competition, toxic behaviour and the future of the medium. In the upcoming months we will be hosting a series of conferences in Europe with different topics where like-minded gamers can meet, exchange experiences, game together and discuss what our role is in shaping the gaming spaces we inhabit.

To apply to any of our upcoming events, fill in the application found here (Link).

We’re accepting applicants from the following countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. Travel costs, food and accommodation covered by GameOverHate and according to the rules you can read about below.

The Events:
Our four events will happen specifically in cities and during dates where big game events are happening in Europe and that will give us the chance to create synergies between both events and to participate as a group in the external ones. All four of the GameOverHate will be one week long and will share the initial programme (specifically created to connect the different agendas and topics of all the events and where the initial discussions will always start.) We are expecting a group of 30 persons to each event.

Event 1 | September 2015 | “Gender and Sexuality in Videogames”Discussing gender and sexuality based hate in videogames and the representation of female and LGBTQ characters in gaming culture.When: 28th September – 4th October 2015 | Where: Vienna, Austria | Side Event: GameCity Vienna

Event 2 | November 2015 | “Esports and Competition”
Discussing how competition and fair play can come together in gaming spaces. How can tournaments and conventions be places inclusive and fun for all?
When: November 2015, before Dreamhack Winter | Where: Jönköping, Sweden | Side Event: Dreamhack Winter

Event 3 | April 2016 | “Gaming Diversity”
Everything you need to know about diversity in gaming!
When: April 2016 | Where: Berlin, Germany | Side Event: International Games Week

GameOverHate and the topic of hate and discrimination in online gaming spaces were the subject of a radio piece in Deutschlandradio Kultur, a German public radio station. David Pinto and Martin Fischer (GameOverHate), Elain Boström (Sverok) and Achim Kaspers (Remote Control Productions) were interviewed and shared their experiences and perspectives on the topic.